Police Report Decline in Road Crashes as Fatalities Increase in 2025

Police have reported a significant decline in road traffic crashes across the country even though fatalities slightly increased during the year.

While releasing the 2025 Annual Crime Report, the Director of Traffic and Road Safety, AIGP Lawrence Nuwabiine, revealed that a total of 322,441 traffic crashes were registered in 2025 compared to 426,432 recorded in 2024 representing a 24.4 percent decrease.

Despite the reduction in the number of crashes, police recorded 4,602 deaths from road accidents in 2025 reflecting a 3.8 percent increase in fatalities.

According to the traffic director, 26,044 of the reported incidents were classified as serious road crashes.

Police also provided a detailed breakdown of the crashes showing that 43,204 accidents were analysed according to vehicle categories and injury severity. Out of these incidents 7,287 were fatal crashes, 21,900 caused serious injuries while 14,017 resulted in minor injuries.

Motorcycles were the most involved vehicles in road accidents. Police recorded 15,096 motorcycle crashes which left 3,224 people dead, 10,276 seriously injured and 1,596 with minor injuries.

Motorcars followed with 12,084 crashes which resulted in 953 fatalities, 4,830 serious injuries and 6,301 minor injuries.

Other vehicles involved in accidents included light omnibuses with 3,098 crashes, medium goods vehicles with 2,345 accidents and heavy goods vehicles with 1,132 crashes. Trailers and semi trailers were involved in 1,349 crashes while heavy omnibuses accounted for 1,243 incidents.

Nuwabiine noted that most crashes occurred during the evening hours between 6pm and 8pm when 3,484 accidents were registered. The fewest incidents were recorded between 2am and 3am with 1,032 crashes.

The report further indicates that weekends recorded the highest number of crashes. Friday recorded 3,921 incidents followed by Saturday with 3,913 and Sunday with 3,870 accidents which together claimed 810 lives.

Thursday recorded the least crashes at 3,462 although the incidents still resulted in 629 deaths.

Police statistics also show that pedestrians accounted for 20 percent of the road fatalities followed by side swiping collisions at 17 percent, rear end collisions at 16 percent, head on collisions at 13 percent, angle collisions at 11 percent and single vehicle rollovers at 9 percent.

Male drivers were responsible for 83 percent of the accidents while females accounted for 17 percent. The most affected age group was around 35 years.

Nuwabiine attributed most of the crashes to drink driving, over speeding and careless overtaking among other traffic violations.

He cited a shocking incident on the expressway where a driver was reportedly recorded driving at a speed of 300 kilometres per hour saying such reckless behaviour should never happen on Ugandan roads.

The traffic director called for strengthening the national CCTV system especially number plate recognition technology to help identify reckless drivers and improve enforcement on the roads.

Several fatal accidents were recorded during the year including the Kiryandongo bus crash which killed 44 people and injured 66 others. Another accident in Kigorobya claimed 19 lives while a crash on the Iganga Tororo highway occurred when a container fell off a trailer and crushed a taxi carrying 10 passengers.